The emerging techno-microsystem and its longitudinal influences on Chinese young children’s behavior problems

Abstract

Screen products are becoming increasingly indispensable in modern family life, yet their effects on developmental outcomes have remained unclear. This study examined the specific ways in which the techno-microsystem, consisting of children’s screen use and digital-related parenting, influenced behavior problems. A socially diverse sample of Chinese caregivers of 2- to 6-year-olds completed online questionnaires three times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an autoregressive latent trajectory model with structured residuals and a cross-lagged panel model with multiverse analysis, we evaluated the within-person and between-person effects of the techno-microsystem on behavior problems, respectively. Our results revealed: (i) active mediation predicted fewer behavior problems over time; (ii) restrictive mediation was longitudinally related to reduction in children’s screen use; and (iii) caregivers’ and children’s screen use covaried but were not predictive of behavior problems. These findings contribute to emerging theories of the techno-microsystem and carry practical implications for devising guidelines on family screen use.